Crazy game nights and going to town...or good times with good people

On Wednesday, the 11th, the conditions weren't great for skiing/snowboarding. The light was kind of flat, as I mentioned in my last post....making it very difficult to see well. Goggles helped a little, but pretty much everyone agreed, it just wasn't the best conditions. (John tells me when the light is "flat" like that...fishing is no good either). Because the temperatures dropped at night...the snow would harden up and when the sun was out it wasn't a big problem, because it warmed it up enough to soften the snow up. On that day,due to the cloudy conditions...the snow stayed hard and kind of icy ....which makes it very difficult to ski or snowboard because you can't get "an edge"...you basically just slide along the crunchy icy snow and hope you don't fall! Not fun!
As it turns out, Martha had scheduled a visit to a hospital in Salt Lake City that morning, to check out their new clinic. (she had met one of the Drs or administrators when they were in Hawaii. She mentioned she was going to be in SLC in March and they invited her to come check it out.) I decided right from the start that I was not going skiing that day...the others gave it a go; but everyone came back before lunch and called it a day. So we had our "cold" lunch and took a little break before heading into "historic downtown Park City" to check out some of the shops.
Martha summed it up like this "art gallery,souvenir/gift shop, restaurant/bar, theater, coffee shop and then repeat....all the way down the block." That said, there were some nice looking galleries along the road...but I wasn't shopping for any artwork. Some of the bars and restaurants looked tempting..but we weren't eating either. We did stop at one of the (many) coffee shops for a snack. We poked around in the stores, everything was nice not too junky, but I didn't see anything I couldn't live without. We did pick up a t-shirt or two along the way.
Park City is an interesting town. I liked it. It's a pretty area, the valley surrounded by the mountains in the background. To me it felt kind of "new". It was very easy to get around everywhere (everywhere we went anyway), it feels "open" and clean and well planned out. That's kind of a lame description...but I liked it.

There is definitely an emphasis on the arts...which is always nice. Lots of galleries, as I mentioned...and sculptures around town.

Did I mention...I looked like a total geeky tourist....wearing my sneakers...hahah. I had smashed my little toe on my right foot a week or so before we left Fl...and I knew I couldn't walk around town all afternoon in my boots. I would have been more "stylish"...hahah but it wasn't worth it. It hurt!
So...it was sneakers...or my looser "snow" boots...which would also have been goofy, since there wasn't much snow or slush around to slosh through.

notice how I cropped my feet out...hahaha...since I was already being goofy and making Megan pose with me on the bench next to the bear :)

We walked around downtown for a bit. Then we headed back to Park City and checked out some of the stores at the resort where we were staying. Martha, Megan and I walked down to the center area...on the opposite side from where we were staying in the condos. Down there, there were ski shops/rentals, bars, restaurants, coffee shops, a market place, etc...and lots of activity. That's where the hotel rooms are, and the main parking lot for day time skiers is located; so there were a lot of people coming and going. we ran into Tony and Ian while we were there. We finalized our dinner plans and then called Marcus to come pick us up for a quick run to the store for some food and wine. It's interesting...they sell beer at the grocery stores...but only one place sells wine and liquor. We stopped there to pick up a few bottles. I sat in the car while they all went in...got to do some people watching. That being the only store in town selling liquor and wine....meant it was pretty popular! hahahhahaha

just after sunset

We cooked dinner every night...Tony mostly...he likes to cook and he's a good one! John helped grill the chicken and steaks one night...and we all helped with side dishes, etc...but I'd say Tony was our main chef. One night we had  a pizza-like appetizer on naan bread,Butternut squash baked with pasta and sauce, nice salad, Gluten free brownies and ice cream. Champagne, beer and wine as needed.
After dinner we usually relaxed and played games......... if no good basketball games were on.(Duke for Marcus). I brought Sequence.

On the back it says...EASY ENOUGH FOR CHILDREN, CHALLENGING FOR ADULTS!- in other words...perfect for us

 We played that a couple of times. I also brought Joker Rummy

...that was a fail...no one wanted to concentrate on learning how to play....hahah. We play "Cards Against Humanity" for a bit...Tara warned us it was a little crude...hahah It was okay...but Tony was not at all interested, Martha, John and I kept looking at each other like "What the heck is this?" hahah We gave up on that after a bit...and found the BEST game of all for our group "Head's Up!"---Thanks Ian!
We had fun with that. We decided not to have teams... we decided we'd rather  just have one person try to guess as the rest of us acted things out. Factor in the wine that was being drunk by the players and we had a LOT of good laughs. I tried my best to capture the "action".

the word was quicksand...hahah- notice Tony's reaction to John... 

 

 

marching(?)

It was hard to catch people "in the act"...because they were moving too fast. Apparently if you hit the setting,  you can record the actions of the people guessing...but we didn't do it that night. Too bad...Ian acting out jumping hurdles and the night's best.... John demonstrating "Pole dancing" by swinging around the beam
between the dining area and the kitchen...hahah would have been worth re-watching.
We had a lot of fun. We didn't go out to any bars or clubs...we didn't go anywhere...which I guess sounds like it might have been boring, but it wasn't at all. We had great fun.
Tara had a couple of friends from Ohio that we skied with one day. One night one of them came to join us for dinner. He had fun, but might have wondered a little about the crazy family Tara had married into...hahaha. Marcus might have wondered too...hahah) He did say  he felt completely comfortable and at home....and it made him miss his family.
Good times with good people.